On this day in 1870, U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signed the act that ended Congressional Reconstruction and readmitted Texas to the Union. In the aftermath of the Civil War, Texas had been in...(Read More)

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FORT MARCY

FORT MARCY. Fort Marcy, named for William L. Marcyqv, secretary of war under President Polk and secretary of state under President Pierce, was probably established when Zachary Taylor moved United States troops, infantry, dragoons, and artillery to Corpus Christi from St. Joseph's Island on August 15, 1845. The engineers laid out Bay View Cemetery that month, and the first burials were probably those of eight soldiers killed en route from the island to the mainland. Taylor proposed abandoning the Corpus Christi area in February 1846 and began moving his troops to the Rio Grande on March 11. There may have been no other federal troops in the area until June 1849, when part of a company of dragoons was stationed there. A depot for military supplies was set up at Corpus Christi in August 1849; Gen. Persifor Smith moved the army headquarters there in 1853 and may have used the name Fort Marcy. The supply depot was probably abandoned in 1857. Whether or not defense works were ever erected at Corpus Christi is not certain, but in 1863 Confederate troops were reported to be positioned behind Taylor's old earthworks.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.